Resume Basics

No one agrees on resumes – every employer will want or like something different!

AND most resumes:

  • Are read in 6 seconds (on average) by recruiters & hiring managers
  • Are read on mobile devices
  • Should have no sentences or paragraphs (if it looks like a book, busy professionals won’t read it)
  • Are going through Application Tracking Systems
    • ATS: software application that allows electronic handling of recruitment
    • Filter applications/resumes based on keywords, skills, former employers, years of experience and schools attended
    • ATS screen out 75%+ of resumes

Resume Recommendations:
(any of these can be pre-empted by employer instruction or insider information)

  • .doc file is the standard (not .docx, pdf, rtf or jpg)
  • Sans serif fonts only (Arial, Calibri, Tahoma, Verdana)
  • Name: 14’ to 18’ point fonts 
  • Body: 10’ to 12’ point fonts
  • Bold: Name, Industry/Job Title Objective, Section Heads, Degrees/Certificates, Job Titles
  • No templates, lines, borders, logos, color, images, columns, tables, text boxes, graphs or shading
  • No condensed or expanded text formatting
  • No headers or footers
  • No abbreviations or acronyms (unless seen listed in job announcement)
  • Never left justify entire resume – use tabs to lead reader’s eye
  • Keep it simple with edited text, no errors and lots of white space
  • Use proper grammar, spelling, capitalization & punctuation
  • Contact information on separate lines:
    • Name
    • Address? (only if adds value)
    • City, State Zip? (only if adds value)
    • Phone #
    • Email (preferably YourName@gmail.com)
    • LinkedIn url
  • No objective section head
  • Create industry focused skills-based resume (this also basis of LinkedIn profile)
    • Everything on resume is related or relevant or transferable to the industry
    • Given to your network, staffing services, career fairs
    • Put industry in bold under contact info (could have several industry resumes)
    • Profile/Summary/Highlights of Qualifications section
      • 3-5 bullets featuring your best sales points for the industry
        • Added up experience
        • Relevant education
        • Relevant accomplishments
    • Skills, Abilities, Technical, Professional keyword section
      • Tab out for easy read
    • Education (goes at bottom/ if not recent & relevant; goes under Skills at top is more recent & relevant to experience)
      • Chronological reverse order
      • Bold Certificate or Degree
      • Un-bold Institution
      • Tab over for City, State (no employer address, zip, phone #, names)
      • Year graduated or left school
        • Simple bullets of added value
          • High GPA (3.25 grade point average or above)
          • Dean’ List, Cum Laude, Honor Society, etc.
          • Student Government proves leadership
          • Related or Relevant Clubs or Activities
    • Experience section head
      • Chronological reverse order
      • If related & relevant volunteer experience
        • Insert in experience section for for-profit employer
        • Create Volunteer section for not-for-profit employer
      • Bold Job Titles
      • Un-bold Company name
      • Tab over for City, State (no employer address, zip, phone #, names)
      • Month & Year to Month & Year (no day needed – 01/13 to 10/15)
      • Create simple bullets
        • Action word (correct grammar – present or past tense)
        • Think accomplishments (not just job duties)
          • Quantify/measure/monetize/stats & numbers when possible
          • Approximates/ranges/based in reality – no company confidential info
            • Numbers jump out of text in 6 second read
            • Numbers are unique to you
            • Numbers help prove transferable results & value

 

  • Create a customized exact job focused skills-based resume for every opportunity
    • Everything still applies
    • Customize the following:
      • Change Industry title to exact Job Title
      • Change Profile/Summary/Highlights to reflect job description requirements/preferences + insider info that you have in their terminology and with your strongest sales points for that position
      • Change Skills section
        • Get rid of skills not on job description or told by insider
        • Make sure skill sets are exact word matches
      • Re-language bullets to better align with company descriptions

RESUME SAMPLE